HTTP live streaming is a media streaming communications protocol for delivering video content using extended M3U playlists and a list of multimedia chunk files. The multimedia data is specified by a Universal Resource Identifier (URI) to a playlist file (i.e., an ordered list of media URIs and informational tags). Each media URI refers to a media file which is a segment of a single contiguous stream. To play the stream, a client device first obtains the playlist file and then obtains and plays each media file in the playlist. HTTP live streaming does not describe or address the replacement or substitution of the multimedia chunk files, or advertisement insertion in the list of multimedia chunk files.
A current focus for the MSO is the development of targeted advertisement technology (i.e., advertisements that are placed so as to reach consumers based on various traits such as demographics, purchase history, or observed behavior). The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) developed and published SCTE 35, the standard that defines the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) format MPEG-2 stream splicing for the purpose of digital program insertion. SCTE 35 defines the messages and structure that allow a multiple system operator (MSO) to insert (i.e., splice) advertisements and other content types into a video broadcast stream.
There is a need for a method and system to translate splice points in a content stream into playlist tags for HTTP live streaming, to align the splice points with the segment media file during encoding or transcoding, and to support the implementation of advertisement insertion or replacement by inserting advertisement segments or replacing an existing advertisement segments with targeted advertisement segments. The presently disclosed invention satisfies this demand.